Okay, admit­tedly I’m on a bit of a scone kick. I can’t help myself with my recent dis­cov­ery of Lucy’s amaz­ing almond flour and all the fresh, organic berries South­ern Cal­i­for­nia has to offer.

A note about Lucy’s and other small busi­nesses. No, it won’t arrive two days later by drone, but you can be happy you are patron­iz­ing a small busi­ness. The flour is extremely well processed and is lighter and rises bet­ter than any­thing else I’ve found out there. Thanks to my friend Erika for intro­duc­ing me to it. Inci­den­tally, after a phone call to place my order, I got my deliv­ery three days later.

These freeze beau­ti­fully, but like most baked goods, are best five min­utes out of the oven. Slather with but­ter or jam, or just eat on their own for a quick and easy break­fast or a nutri­tious after­noon snack.

Try­ing to find chicken break­fast sausage with­out night­shades (paprika) has proven to be impos­si­ble. I’m glad really, because mak­ing these myself is quite easy, thanks to my neigh­bor­hood butcher who grinds organic, bone­less, skin­less chicken thighs for me. The fla­vor of thighs is far supe­rior to white meat and has nearly enough fat to yield a fla­vor­ful sausage. Don’t use breast meat — it’s just too lean and dry.

You can use fresh sage if you’ve got it. The ratio of dried to fresh herbs is about 1:3. One tea­spoon of dried sage equals one table­spoon of fresh.

I make a dou­ble recipe on the week­ends and freeze these pat­ties for use dur­ing the week. Using an ice cream scoop pro­duces a per­fect patty — just don’t fill it all the way. A scant scoop is just right. These pat­ties make great slid­ers too, using gluten-free buns sliced down to a smaller size. My kids also like to wrap them in a let­tuce leaf with mayo, mus­tard and onion for an after school lunch. For break­fast, lunch or din­ner, these lit­tle sausages are a healthy, tasty and quick addi­tion to my pantry.

Scantly fill an ice cream scooper and place con­tents into hot pan and smooth top with a spat­ula, flat­ten­ing slightly. Don’t crowd pan. Cook pat­ties over medium heat for 3–5 min­utes per side, depend­ing on thickness.

Adapted from Jodi Bager and Jenny Lass’ won­der­ful grain-free gourmet cook­book, these bis­cuits are a won­der­ful gluten-free, no-grain option that will melt in your mouth. The onion and cheese pro­vide just the right amount of savory — so deli­cious. If you make them ahead of time, pop them in the toaster oven for a minute to crisp them up before serving.

They freeze really well too, so make a bunch and watch your almond flour disappear.

My friend Nili intro­duced me to these cook­ies yes­ter­day. Got to love a neigh­bor who drops by with good­ies! They are incred­i­bly moist and chewy and would be a good base for a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent iter­a­tions — white choco­late, dried cran­ber­ries or cherries…

After all the treats from the hol­i­days, I like this recipe because it’s not ter­ri­bly sweet. In fact, one of the aspects I appre­ci­ate about bak­ing is the abil­ity to con­trol the amount of sweet­ener I use. The orig­i­nal recipe calls for maple syrup. I per­son­ally do bet­ter with agave, but honey would work beau­ti­fully as well.

A sort of take on the Witches Hats, they have only a few ingre­di­ents, which if you’re gluten-free, you’re sure to have on hand. The recipe below is dou­bled, yield­ing around 40 cook­ies, which is a stan­dard recipe if using a mini ice cream scooper for por­tions. They freeze well, so dou­bling the recipe just makes sense. Enjoy!

White choco­late, dried cher­ries and salted pecans are a great com­bi­na­tion for the hol­i­days. Coconut adds another bit of depth. Remem­ber, any kind of choco­late, even the stuff that isn’t really choco­late (like “white” choco­late) is bet­ter with salt, hence the salted nuts. I also tried this recipe with orange infused cran­ber­ries and wal­nuts which was also quite good. The point of mak­ing a recipe like this is to exper­i­ment. I think pis­ta­chios would be great here too — be cre­ative with the fla­vors and make it your own. This makes a lovely hol­i­day gift for friends and neigh­bors, but keep some for yourself.

Fill the bot­tom of a medium sauce pan an inch deep with water and bring to a sim­mer. Pour the white choco­late into a heat­proof bowl and set over the sim­mer­ing saucepan. Stir with a spat­ula until melted and smooth, about 5 minutes.

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